Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1988, and (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy, 1988. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Douglas Allen Comstock. / M.S.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-166). / by Jeffrey Eric Munson. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-181). / by Andrew Scott Luers. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-158). / by Adam Michael Ross. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-99). / by Brandon C. Wood. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering; and, (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-122). / Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a critical technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity production by coal-fired power plants. However, full capture (capture of nominally 90% of emissions) has significant impacts on the technology, plant performance, and project economics that represent challenges for the first movers who implement the technology. This work finds that capturing only part of the emissions (i.e., partial capture) can facilitate implementation compared to full capture. Partial capture is easier to implement technologically, resulting in lower risk. To investigate plant performance and economics as a function of capture percentage, spreadsheet models were developed for both pulverized coal (PC) and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant technologies. Compared to full capture, partial capture can preserve efficiency, and thus ability to dispatch electricity to the grid, thereby reducing the risk of stranding and ensuring that emissions reduction will occur. For a PC plant, the cost savings associated with partial capture are significant, and a reasonable mitigation cost ($/ton of avoided emission) is maintained. This makes partial capture for PC more implementable than full capture, and a strategy of partial capture, especially for demonstrations, will accelerate commercialization of post-combustion capture. For an IGCC, the cost savings are relatively small, and there is a mitigation cost penalty associated with partial capture. The decision between full capture and partial capture for IGCC requires a trade-off of various technological and economic priorities. Due to the cost and challenge of implementing IGCC base technology, a strategy of partial capture is unlikely to accelerate commercialization of pre-combustion capture. However, partial capture strategies will assist in maintaining a robust electricity sector compared to the alternate situation of fuel-switching from coal to natural gas. This can occur through a diversified portfolio of options for technologies and fuels, consumer protection, and reduced risk of carbon lock-in. / by Ashleigh Nicole Hildebrand. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2007. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-170). / In the design of complex systems serving a broad group of stakeholders, it can be difficult to prioritize objectives for the architecture. I postulate that it is possible to make architectural decisions based on consideration of stakeholder value delivery, in order to help prioritize objectives. I introduce the concept of value network models to map out the indirect benefit delivered to stakeholders. A numerical methodology for prioritizing paths through this network model is presented, with a view to discovering the most important organizational outputs. I show how value network models can be linked to architecture models to provide decision support to the architect. I present a case study to examine the connectivity and sensitivity of a test architecture to value delivery. I conclude that a limited subset of NASA's outputs will discriminate between architectures. In this manner, I show how value considerations can be used to structure the design space before critical technical decisions are made to narrow it. A number of organizational implications for value delivery are generated from this analysis. In particular, I show that benefit flows should be aligned to organizational processes and responsibilities, and that failure to map stakeholder input to architecture evaluation can weaken benefit. / by Bruce G. Cameron. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. / Investments in three coal-fired power generation technologies are valued using the "real options" valuation methodology in an uncertain carbon dioxide (CO2) price environment. The technologies evaluated are pulverized coal (PC), integrated coal gasification combined cycle (baseline IGCC), and IGCC with pre-investments that make future retrofit for CO2 capture less expensive (pre-investment IGCC). All coal-fired power plants can be retrofitted to capture CO2 and can be considered "capture-capable", even though the cost and technical difficulty to retrofit may vary greatly. However, initial design and investment that take into consideration such future retrofit, makes the transition easier and less expensive to accomplish. Plants that have such an initial design can be considered to be "capture-ready". Pre-investment IGCC can be considered to be "capture-ready" in comparison to PC and baseline IGCC on this basis. Furthermore, baseline IGCC could be taken as "capture-ready" in comparison to PC. Cash flow models for specific cases of these three technologies were developed based on literature studies. The problem was formulated such that CO2 price is the only uncertain cash flow variable. All cases were designed to have a constant net electric output before and after CO2 retrofit. As a result, electricity price uncertainty had no differential impact on the competitive positions of the different technologies. While coal price was taken to be constant, sensitivity analysis were conducted to show the impact of varying coal prices. Investment valuation was done using the "real options" approach. / (cont.) This approach combines (i) Market Based Valuation (MBV) to valuing cash flow uncertainty, with (ii) Dynamic quantitative modeling of uncertainty, which helps model dynamic retrofit decision making. The thesis addresses three research questions: (i) What is the economic value of temporal flexibility in making the decision to retrofit CO2 capture equipment? (ii) How does the choice of valuation methodology (DCF v. MBV) impact the investment decision to become "capture-ready"? (iii) Among the coal-fired power plant technologies, which should a firm choose to invest in, given an uncertain CO2 policy? What are the economic factors that influence this choice? The answers to the research questions strongly depend on the input assumptions to the cash flow and CO2 price models, and the choice of representative cases of the technologies. For the specific cases analyzed in this thesis, it was found that investing in "capture-ready" power plants was not economically attractive. / by Ram Chandra Sekar. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 2005. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Page 251 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-239). / The deployment of fuel recycling through either CONFU (COmbined Non-Fertile and UO2 fuel) thermal watercooled reactors (LWRs) or fast ABR (Actinide Burner Reactor) reactors is compared to the Once-Through LWR reactor system in terms of accumulation of actinides over the next 100 years under the assumption of a growing worldwide demand for nuclear energy. It is assumed that the growth rate is about 2.1% per year up to 2053, with alternative scenarios after that date. The transuranics (TRU) stored in temporary repositories, the TRU sent to permanent repositories, the system cost and a vulnerability index toward proliferation are calculated by the CAFCA code and taken as key figures of merit. Deployment of the ABRs is assumed to occur later (2028) than the CONFU LWRs (2015), whose technology requires less extensive additional R&D. Through 2050 the CONFU strategy performs better than the ABR strategy. The CONFU LWRs in our model yield zero net TRU incineration while the ABRs have a net consumption of TRU. Compared to the Once-Through strategy, by 2050 the CONFU (respectively ABR) strategy reduces by about 22% (respectively 16%) the total inventory of TRU in the system. This reduction corresponds to the TRU production being avoided by CONFU LWRs or being incinerated in ABRs compared to the TRU produced in the traditional LWRs used in the Once-Through strategy. / (cont.) The net consumption of TRU in ABRs makes the ABR strategy more attractive in a longer term. By 2100, the ABR (respectively CONFU) strategy would have reduced the worldwide TRU inventory by 75% (respectively 58%) compared to the Once-Through case. The three strategies are also discussed with regard to uranium ore availability, repository need, and processing plants need. It is interesting to note that with either recycling strategies the total capacity for separation of spent UO2 constituents need only be four to five times the existing capacity today. Furthermore, only one TRU recycling plant from fertile-free fuel would be needed at a capacity of 250 MTHM/year up to 2050. The economic analysis shows that both closed fuel cycles are more expensive than the reference Once-Through scheme. The total cost of electricity production is expected to be 5 mills/kWhe, or about 15%, larger than the Once-Through cycle case, if the spent fuel separation is paid off by the electricity sales from the resulting fuel. The timing of collection of fuel cycle costs significantly affects the cost of electricity. Paying for fuel separation by the sales of the electricity producing the spent fuel to be reprocessed later has a smaller effect on the cost of electricity in the advanced fuel cycles (between 1 or 2 mills/kWhe or between 3 and 6%) compared to the cost of electricity in the Once-Through strategy. / (cont.) From a policy point of view, an index of vulnerability toward proliferation is defined and gives an advantage to the advanced fuel cycles. The large amount of heavy metal in the repository and the long life time of this repository penalize the Once-Through strategy. However the results are sensitive to the accessibility factor assigned to the repository which is, as all accessibility factors, a subjective value that is not precisely defined. Moreover, worldwide cooperation to implement the two advanced strategies and the challenges this implementation could face are discussed. The use of a single behaviour mode throughout the world implies an unlikely perfect cooperation between countries that do not have the same capabilities or incentives to choose among the advanced fuel cycle strategies. / by Thomas Boscher. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1988, and Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Michael James Massimino. / M.S.